THE NATIONAL GREED LEAGUE

by Mac G, Mac G's World

As with most sports fans and readers of Epic Carnival, I love football. I enjoy watching, writing, and reading about football. I loved playing it. My favorite video games growing up were Tecmo Bowl, Bill Walsh’s football, and Madden.

Before my ex-bookie took out my knees, my number one vice was betting on football. I inhaled teasers, parlays, and point spreads for years.

I am obsessed with fantasy football (5 teams) and I can not get enough NFL draft coverage. The National Football League is the absolute pinnacle of professional sports in America and obviously, a perfect outlet for my football addiction.

I own a NFL jersey (Favre), subscribe to the Direct TV Super Fan package, and my favorite sports channel is 212(NFL network).

Being a single male with expendable money and no kids, I define the NFL’s target demographic.

However, lately I feel fleeced and disrespected as a fan by the NFL. Two high profile incidents created these boiling emotions.

NFL network/Cable company feuds

Whenever I am forced to choose between two powerful monopolies, I always bring up the Rosie Odonnell/ Donald Trump metaphor. Do you defend the self centered rich Ahole or the annoying, unfunny loud mouth comedian? Lose, Lose either way.

I feel the same sentiment towards picking between the NFL/Cable Companies. NFL creates their own network and power plays the Cable Companies into carrying it.

The majority of cable companies balk and now 70 percent of America is currently unable to get the channel. The NFL further escalates their cable feud by putting games on their network.

The Packers/Cowboys game on the NFL network was one of the marquee games of the whole year and the majority of the fans were shut out from viewing it.

It is puzzling that the NFL would choose a business model where they void an overwhelming majority of their customers the opportunity to watch their best polished product.

As always and predictably, the fans are the true losers in this billion dollar squabble.

Bottom Line: FIGURE IT OUT.

NFL Copy Right Obsession with You Tube

I had no idea that the NFL acted like Viacom by yanking down videos off You Tube until I was personally contacted by blogger to delete a post that I had put on my blog about Bob Sanders.

I posted 2 highlight videos of Sanders, which the NFL yanked down, citing copy right infringement. A friend of mine had a Browns highlight packaged similarly dismantled by the NFL minions.

I am sure the NFL’s copyright argument would stand up in a court law but how about the court of public opinion? Does the NFL not understand how You Tube works? No one is making money off highlight packages from You Tube nor are they losing money from it.

I think you can make a strong argument that NFL clips of players on You Tube are actually promoting the NFL brand. Plus, they do not even offer similar highlight packages on their own website nor do they provide embedding for videos.

The NFL’s controlling behavior was never more despicable than their treatment of Sean Taylor You Tube videos. Fans flocked to You Tube in order to watch Taylor’s highlights and mourn his tragic passing. Did the NFL embrace this? PLEASE!

They yanked video after video down. Protecting their copyright is more important to them than honoring the memory of one their deceased stars. (I just found the Taylor Pro Bowl punter hit, better click on it before the copyright police find it)

It turns out the NFL’s battle with You Tube has been on going ever since Google acquired You Tube. There is a famous show down between the NFL and a law professor, who posted a clip of the NFL's copyright message that aired during the Super Bowl. NFL was furious and you can read all the details here.

This year’s European game debacle and allowing the Steelers/Dolphins to play on a mud pie are two other minor examples of bad decisions by the NFL motivated by personal financial interests over the fans.

The NFL just disbanded NFL Europe, why would you have a regular season game there? Did you see the Steelers field? No one should have played a game on that muck and they were lucky more players did not get injured.

I could never imagine a world where I would spend my fall Sunday afternoons doing something else but only one of the 7 deadly sins will ever stop me from continuing to financially support and follow this league.

Recently on my blog, I coined a new nickname for the NFL’s attitude towards its customers/fans:

The National Greed League.